India emerging as global sourcing hub: Patel

Mumbai, Sept 2: The managing direcotor and CEO of the Bombay Stock Exchange, Rajnikant Patel, today said that India is becoming a global sourcing hub.

Inaugurating a two-day seminar on 'Finance Continuum', at the Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay, he said India is becoming a global sourcing hub, and this fact is reflected by the investments made in the country by FIIs (foreign institutional investors). The volume of their investments, since the past couple of years is on the rise.

Also, the government's focus on infrastructure development has resulted in the the increase in FDI (foreign direct investment). Many things are still lying low, but as an economy we are coming together, he said.

The theme of the seminar is 'Emerging markets strike back'.

Enumerating the features of the Indian economy, he said that India was blessed with a huge work force of young educated and skilled individuals, conversant with english, unlike China and Europe. If India as a nation was at a turning point, then the youth were going to be its catalyst, he said.

Terming the growing population of the country as ' human capital', he said that it was favouring the growth of BPOs (business process outsourcing) and ITESs (information technology enables services). Added to it was the mastery of english of the people here which has in fact become the pervasive medium of communication in the country, he said.

Above all, strong consumer appetite of the growing middle class was helping a lot in the emerging capital market of the country, he stressed.

However, he expressed his concern over the fact that paucity of funds for Research&Development activities have resulted in comparatively less number of IPR (intellectual property rights) and patents being registered by Indian organisations.

Regarding investments being made in mutual funds (MF) in the country, Mr Patel said, ''Merely two per cent of the country's population was investing in MFs, which was quite small when compared to the parallel figure for the US market which was more than 25 per cent.'' Outlining the need for 'corporate governance' in the country Mr Patel said that it was a necessity rather than a mere requirement. Quoting the outgoing head of Infosys, Narayan Murthy, he said, ''It should be in the DNA of the company.''

UNI